K. Linde - Take Me for Granted

“McDermott!” Donovan said, waving me over. “Just in time!”

“For what?”

“The party.”

It appeared that the party was already well underway, but Donovan might be on something a little harder than that whiskey sitting in front of him.

“Didn’t realize I’d be walking in on a…pajama party,” I said.

“Guess the invite got mixed up. Girls, maybe you can help McDermott out of his shirt?”

The girls got up automatically. There was no hesitation. They were just going to take my clothes off because Donovan had told them to.

“Uh…no. I got it.”

I slipped out of my shirt, and the girls looked disappointed, like they really had wanted to do it for me.

I dropped into the seat next to Donovan. “Quite a place you have here.”

“Yeah. Hollis wanted the best.”

“Nice.”

I crossed my arms and looked at all the girls. I knew that there were girls like this at the shows, and damn, it was pretty easy to come by girls who wanted to fuck me. I was sure it was easier to get girls for The Drift, who were legit rock stars, but still, it wasn’t even dinner yet, and there were at least thirty hot-as-shit girls in lingerie in his hotel room.

“Where do the girls come from?”

Donovan was playing a new tune on his guitar, and he stopped at my question. “Oh, Hollis finds them. Most are regulars. I mean, you know Jaci,” Donovan said with a wink as he pointed at a girl across the room, who was wearing nothing but a black lace thong.

“She looks familiar,” I said. I remembered Vin had wanted to get with her, and Hollis had tried to push her on me, but that was it.

“Well, you fucked her on New Year’s. I’d hope she looked familiar.”

Time froze. I reacted without another thought. “What? I didn’t fuck anyone on New Year’s!”

Donovan gave me a knowing look. “Oh, come on. Were you that fucked-up? You left with her right after you got offstage. Hollis saw you leave.”

Anger started to settle into the pit of my stomach. “I went home after the show. Straight home. I didn’t have anyone with me.”

I didn’t know why I was trying to defend this to Donovan. He probably thought it was good that I’d fucked one of the groupies after the show. That was commonplace after all.

“All right, man. Whatever you want me to believe. I won’t fault you for fucking a groupie. I got some good action with that Ari girl you were hanging out with at the lodge.”

All semblance of control that I’d had earlier evaporated. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked, rising to my feet. “You fucked Ari? I’ll fucking kill you.”

Donovan raised his eyebrows at my reaction, but he didn’t actually look that surprised. He looked smug. “Big reaction for the status of one groupie.”

“Ari is not a groupie. She’s my girlfriend,” I growled, fighting for control.

“She didn’t seem like anyone’s girlfriend when she was backstage at the New Year’s Eve show,” Donovan said, standing up to face me. “If you get what I mean…”

I didn’t think. I just acted. I lunged for Donovan, catching him off guard and connecting my fist with his face. It snapped his head backward, and he stumbled into the chair. But I wasn’t finished. All the pent-up anger from the weeks without Ari came flooding into me in an overwhelming quantity. I couldn’t even control it all. He had touched her, and I would fucking destroy him, just like I’d said the first time he’d tried something.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Donovan yelled.

All that did was bring more attention on us, but I was too far into this to care.

I’d lost the element of surprise, and Donovan was already back up on his feet. I reached for him again, but he blocked my punch. I pivoted and got a shot to his kidney that caused him to double over. I sent my fist into his face again. He fell flat on his back in the hotel room.

The rest of the band showed up at that moment and dragged me away from Donovan. I could see his face was bloody, but I hadn’t broken anything. My chest was heaving, and all I could think about was the bloodlust. He couldn’t touch her. I’d fucking murder him.

“Get him out of here!” Donovan cried as girls flocked to his side to check on him.

“I told you that I’d destroy you if you touched her, you motherfucker.”

“You’re fucking insane. She’s just some girl. If you ever get signed—and that’s a big fucking if at this point—you’re going to see this for what it really is. You’re going to leave her, or she’s going to get tired of you cheating on her. You’ll look back on this moment and know I was fucking right.”

“That just shows how different you and I really are, Donovan. Because I love Ari. I respect her. I’d give her the world, the moon, the stars, the whole fucking universe. When I get signed, and I really do mean when,” I growled, shaking off the guys who were holding me, “I’m coming for your ass, just to prove you wrong.”

I already had organic chemistry homework.

It was a bit of relief to be back on a normal schedule again. The break had seemed like some kind of strange dream, something someone else had gone through and not me. I’d lost my virginity, lost my boyfriend, been kissed by a rock star, and been propositioned by someone whose relationship with me bordered on an arranged marriage.

At least some things always stayed the same—like homework. I had a tough class schedule this semester, and I needed to make sure that I stayed on top of everything. There was an introductory study session later tonight. I couldn’t decide if it was better to get involved from the get-go or try to do everything myself…like normal.

A knock at the door kept me from deciding. My heart rate shot through the roof as I wondered if today would be the day that I’d have to face Grant. I’d decided that I would do it this weekend. I’d let him break my heart this weekend.

Cheyenne came out of her room and jumped when she saw me. “I thought you were going to a study session!”

I narrowed my eyes. “I decided not to.”

Shelby and Gabi appeared a minute later. They were equally surprised to find me sitting in the dining room. They shot questioning looks at Cheyenne.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re having some people over to watch a movie,” Shelby said.

“Some people…as in?”

Gabi sighed. “I invited McAvoy over. We saw a lot of each other over break, and well, I guess we’re kind of together.”

I just stared at my friends. McAvoy…and that probably meant Vin and Miller and…

I shot out of my seat. “Are you saying Grant is going to be in our house?”

“No!” Shelby and Cheyenne said at once.

Gabi was shaking her head. “We told them not to bring him, but we thought you’d be gone.”

“You can’t just hide this stuff from me! I don’t want to be blindsided that his friends are going to be here in our house!” I started packing up all of my papers and throwing the stuff into my backpack.

The guys started knocking again, and Shelby rushed over to answer it.

Cheyenne gave me a pleading look. “Please don’t freak out about this.”

“Freak out? Why would I freak out? It’s every day that my roommates invite over my…whatever. This is stupid,” I grumbled. “Fuck Grant McDermott.”

Cheyenne giggled, and I glared at her.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have made that dirty,” she said.

“I swear, you just can’t help yourself.”

Our conversation cut off as Miller, McAvoy, and Vin walked into our apartment. They looked pretty shocked to see me there as well, so the girls must have said I’d be gone. Well, lucky for them, I was leaving.

“Hey, Ari,” Miller said cordially.

I nodded my head at him and then continued to pack up.

The group moved to the living room, and I stomped into my room to find my boots. It was still cold out there. When I returned, they were all cuddled up together. Cheyenne was sitting on Vin’s lap on the couch. Gabi had her head on McAvoy’s shoulder. Shelby and Miller were sitting side-by-side. I wondered how much Shelby knew about Miller and Sydney, but I didn’t care to bring that up right now.

After grabbing my peacoat off the back of the chair, I put it on and threw my backpack over it.

“Hey, Ari?” McAvoy said.

Our eyes met across the room.

“Yeah?”

Miller sat up straight. “McAvoy, no.”

“Shut up, Miller. No one else is going to talk about it. We need our brother back, so seriously, just shut up.”

I resolutely stood there, wondering what the hell they were talking about.

“So, are you going to talk to Grant?”

“It’s not like he wants to talk to me.”

“Really?” McAvoy asked incredulously. “That’s the line of reasoning you’re going to go with?”

“What else am I supposed to think?” I asked, feeling my frustration turning to anger. “If Grant wants to talk to me, he knows where to find me.”

“Maybe you should remind him. He’s been acting like a fucking idiot since you left, and he might have forgotten.” McAvoy sighed and shook his head. “We’ve been trying to get signed for years, and now that we’re this close, Grant is talking about quitting because he’s so fucked-up about your relationship. Maybe think that over, and stop being so selfish.”

My mouth dropped open. “Selfish? He cheated on me!”

“Not the way we’ve heard the story,” Miller piped up. “I think you have a lot of things to talk about.”

“Whatever,” I ended lamely. I didn’t know what else to say. There was too much of what they’d said that didn’t make sense, and I needed to process.

Everything that the guys had said was swirling around in my mind. Grant was thinking about quitting ContraBand? Why the hell would he do that? He loved the band and his brothers and everything about music. It simply couldn’t be about me. That made no sense.

And the guys had said that he hadn’t cheated? I’d been there on New Year’s. Donovan and Hollis had told me that he’d gone off with someone else, and he’d never messaged me. I’d never messaged him…but still. It seemed likely with Grant’s track record. Did the guys just not know he’d slept with someone on New Year’s? And if he hadn’t slept with someone…did that mean I’d cheated with Henry?

No. I hadn’t wanted that kiss. Well, a part of me had, a drunk part of me, but I’d stopped it.

God, there are too many things to think about. I didn’t want to go rushing over to Grant’s house like a dog with my tail between my legs. We had a lot to talk about. The few weeks of us being apart had felt like an eternity, and at this point, there was so much that needed to be said. It felt like we’d built a wall between us, and I wasn’t sure how ready I was to climb that. It might be easier to try to tear it down with my bare hands.

Deciding that O-chem took precedence over my floundering love life, I drove to the library in a hurry. I found the study group with ease, but I stopped myself from joining them at the last minute. Not only did I not want to have to deal with teaching the group instead of actually learning anything myself…Kristin was with them.

Her mousy brown hair was in a braid over her shoulder, and she was tugging on it as she flirted with some guy from our class. Disgust washed over me. Did the girl never stop?

I hated that I kept seeing her…that I would continue to see her. We had organic chemistry together as well as molecular biology and calc IV. I seriously couldn’t escape the conniving bitch.

Backpedaling, I found a secluded spot on the same level and pulled out my assignment. I quickly got lost in the equations before me. I was finishing up the assignment, my head buried in my book, when I heard someone clear her throat next to me.

I glanced up and groaned. “What do you want?”

“Hey, Aribel,” Kristin said, rocking back and forth on her toes. “I thought you might have been at the study session.”

“Well, I wasn’t. And you’re free to go now.”

“Mind if I take a seat?” She gestured to the chair in front of me.

“Yes, I do mind,” I snapped.

“Is someone else meeting you?”

“If this is you trying to get to Grant, then you can turn around right now and leave. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see you. Just leave me alone.”

“This isn’t…I mean, that’s not why I’m here,” she said hastily.

“Then, why are you here? Simply to annoy me?”